REPORT. Where is the "country of men of integrity" when a few days before its presidential election, on November 22, it is under the pressure of jihadist attacks?

Burkina Faso has a lot to share with Côte d'Ivoire: a border nearly 600 km long, a railway line, working the land on cocoa, coffee and cola plantations, millions of "binationals", a very sharp sense of humor... But their respective presidential elections just three weeks apart have big differences even if the thing is understood here as in Abidjan: the incumbent has a great chance of retaining his chair, whether by the "KO" coup, or after having resisted in a second round to a united opposition. The difference in size: Roch Marc Christian Kaboré will complete his first term and his candidacy does not pose any constitutional problem. Hence perhaps this impression of lethargy that reigns in this end of the Burkinabe campaign.

Strong impact of the security issue

In almost all the heads of the country, in reality, only one concern: that of the security context, while fourteen Burkinabe soldiers still fell on November 11, victims of an ambush in the North, in Tin-Akoff, one of the attacks with the heaviest toll for the armed forces in recent years originally a temporary suspension of the campaign and the postponement of meetings. "It was under the Roch government that the terrorist fire was lit, so it is up to him to extinguish the embers today," says Solange, chief financial officer of an international development institution, who will accordingly give his vote to the incumbent. Political debates do not seem to ignite the crowds much, and in the small maquis of the districts of Koulouba or Gounghin, these days, more than the political news, we comment on the recent victory of the national team, the Stallions, against Malawi as part of the qualifiers of the CAN.

Hushed electoral atmosphere

Moreover, the inhabitants do not wear as in the past ostentatious signs of rallying to one or the other of the candidates: T-shirts, caps, whistles, etc. A law passed in 2015 under the transitional regime prohibits the distribution of all these parcels that usually color the pre-election period, to limit the purchase of votes in kind and enforce electoral fairness. Much to the chagrin of screen printers... who regret the manna disappeared.

Of the October 2014 revolution, which ended with the departure of Blaise Compaoré after twenty-seven years of power, remains as the only trace in the capital the remains of the Azalaï Indépendance, the palace in the city center burned by the demonstrators. The inauguration of the renovated hotel was scheduled for summer 2019. Tired, the work is still in progress, and from the courts of the tennis club of Ouagadougou which adjoin it, we still see the walls of scaffolding placed against the concrete facades, and some palm trees that have grown between the piles of rubble.

Incursion in Nionghsin ("The founders" in the Mòoré language, a reference to the ancestral activity of casting bronze of which the district is the cradle). At idrissa Guira's workshop, the activity is slowing down. The Covid-19 epidemic has driven away the last foreign customers who were running the shop, and some men sand or skate without conviction pieces that will take years to find buyers.

In the heart of the countryside for Roch

Taped to a wall, this poster: "Wendata Movement, for the re-election of comrade Roch Marc Christian Kaboré". It is explained to me that he was born less than a kilometer from here, in the neighboring district of Dapoya. They are about fifty to have gathered under his banner to support "the child of the neighborhood". "Wendata means: what God wants. We know that he wants our candidate to win," explains Malick Guira, the youngest of the family, a talented sculptor who leads several introductory courses in the art of foundry each year in France. To support Roch in his campaign, "the women made dry cakes with corn flour, we organized a blood drive at the health center," he says. A bronze representation of the kosyam presidential palace was presented to a deputy of the presidential movement, the People's Movement for Progress, to offer to the president.

The city in the colors of the candidates

But the terroir is not the only source of the vote. Two guards of a villa, one by day, the other by night. The first will vote Roch. When we ask the second: "No wonder, he's a Mossi...! Proof that the reflexes of ethnic or religious votes have not completely disappeared. When you walk along the long boulevard France-Afrique that connects the city center to the upscale district of Ouaga 2000, built at the end of the millennium to rethink the urban development of the capital, the usual billboards that punctuate it are now covered with posters to the glory of the candidates.

Those of Roch are by far the most numerous, "Burkina in motion", in orange hues, which are reminiscent ("EM") those of Emmanuel Macron in 2017. "For decent housing", "For a new contract of social cohesion", "For public services accessible to all", the usual litany of promises. Roch, thumbs up, in his garment of fabric in faso dan fani, this cotton fiber, one of the most refined in the world, which thanks to the nostalgic of Captain Thomas Sankara for having brought up to date, rather than the Western costumes that Blaise Compaoré wore in his time. As for the posters of Zéphirin Diabré, the dauphin of 2015, they challenge by their messianic side: "Together, let's save Faso! »

Contrasting balance sheet marked by jihadist pressure

What is the outcome for Roch? Everyone will appreciate according to their convictions. Free maternal and child care and the construction of 7,500 boreholes are to his credit. But it is difficult to ignore the humanitarian crisis in Faso, with more than a million internally displaced people fleeing the jihadist threat. Moreover, this election can only be held on 85% of the national territory, more than 1,500 villages, out of 8,000 in total, could not be enrolled. Desertion of residents and civil servants, closed roads, impossibility of transporting electoral materials: the election will be held without them.

A major challenge for the opposition

But the opposition seems too compromised or divided (thirteen candidates validated by the Céni) to be able to really challenge the re-election of the incumbent. Only the improbable proposal of "Zeph" to connect Burkina Faso to the ocean by digging canals to join the three main rivers of the country (the Mouhoun, the Nazinon, the Nakambé, formerly the Black, Red, and White Volta) caused a reaction. Crazy or awesome, in any case, it divides!

Through this presidential election, and the single-member voting system that electrifies the country, the opposition is inevitably confronted with its demons and dreams. That said, one question really seems to preoccupy the hearts of Burkinabè: will their country be able to once again become that space of tolerance and peaceful cohabitation between all that had become its "trademark"? In any case, the challenge is daunting.